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Topic: 5DIII AF area selection (sports) (Read 4153 times)

Which AF area mode do you guys use when shooting sports? I have read a number of Canon reps and professional sports shooters saying they use "Auto selection:61 pt AF". Granted most of these are with the 1DX, but would that not be the case with the 5DIII? The only time I tried this mode was at AMA Supercross in Anaheim, CA. More times than not the AF system seemed to lock focus on the padded blocks used to line the track rather than the rider or motorcycle. Is there some setting that needs to go along with the 61 pt AF mode to get a higher pct of keepers due to focus lock? It seems like the only modes I get predictable results are "Expand AF area: +" and "Expand AF area: Surround".

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For One Shot, I always manually select my AF point. For AI Servo, I do use 61-pt auto, which lets you manually select the AF point from which tracking will start. That's on a 1D X - the 5DIII does not have the iTR face tracking feature found on the 1D X (iTR uses data from the 100K pixel RGB metering sensor, the 5DIII has the 63-zone iFCL dual-color metering sensor found in the 7D, 60D, T5i/700D, etc.).

I just finished reading a link posted by Northstar in the "Anything 1DX" thread that talks about sports settings on the 1DX that also can be applied to the 5DIII. I have not tried the cases, other than case 1, but I will start using them more often, now. This may sound like it would have an obvious answer, but I will ask it anyways.

If I use a + area grouping to manually select an AF point in AI Servo mode, and I have a moving subject like a Motorcross rider, will the camera lock on and move to neighboring AF points (outside the +) for the duration of my pressing the shutter release? Or does the subject need to be tracked with the camera where they remain under the same AF point in the frame? I have always tried to track my subject wherever it moved, making me feel frantic and uncontrolled while shooting. But maybe that is the wrong way to do it if the camera will track it and I can just frame my overall scene and let the subject move where it wants throughout. I am assuming this is the point of the 61 pt mode. Is it possible, on a 5DIII, to select which AF point is used to lock onto a subject and then allow the other 60 points to take over from there? Or is that the iTR that is only on the 1DX?

With 4- or 8-pt expansion, the expansion points are used only if the selected point can't lock focus - you still should be tracking the selected point over your subject.

61pt auto in AI Servo on the 5DIII works as you describe - you pick a starting AF point, then it will continue to track the subject as it moves through the frame. The difference with the 1D X is that it actually tracks faces, which is a big benefit because otherwise the AF system will prefer to lock onto a higher contrast subject (numbers on a jersey, for example).

Cool, but how do I control which point the 61 pt auto starts with? It seems like when I half-press the shutter the camera selects any cluster it wants based on contrast. With the shutter still half-pressed, I tried the joystick and the top wheel and the AF point cluster was unaffected.

If you don't have the option to directly select AF points with the multicontroller set up in Custom Controls (I do), you need to press the AF point selection button (top right, right of the */AE Lock button), then select a point with the multicontroller.